Unpopular opinions

[Abyss_Fish]

--- s30v is bad and you should feel bad. well okay, for *very light* everyday use it's probably fine. For a knife that's particularly fancy or something like that, yeah it's fine. But going back to my previous point, if you plan to use your knife, it's useless. It's one of the least stainless stainlesses and the edge chips at the first sight of danger. It's just plain worse than other options. I'd rather have a knife in vg10 (which sharpens and maintains easily, takes a keen edge, is cheap, and is fairly stainless.) over s30v any day.

This was an interesting post to read. I agreed with you on basically everything, including preferring VG10 to S30V, but I'm curious how you formed your opinions on S30V?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hl3n-BtLoaI

If you have the time I'd be curious to hear your interpretation of how that video was possible :p

I work in a kitchen, and for about 3 or 4 months I used a wharny s30v delica as my utility knife. I cut up hundreds of boxes and opened hundreds of bags of raw meat. S30v is in fact reasonably tough, as that video shows. But it’s not *ductile*. It chips. Any sort of a blow to the tip or edge meant I needed to re-profile when I got home. It’s why I’m so in love with lc200n and 3v, it takes a **** of a lot to chip them out, making maintenance easier. Plus even on days I didn’t get a chance to use that delica, it still rusted just from being in my pocket for a full shift. I just don’t think it’s a working steel, I think it belongs with the 1095’s, 154cm’s, and rwl-34’s of the traditional and custom world. Although I’d take any of those steels over s30v that’s for **** sure.

Also, woodcuting does very little to damage a knife’s fine edge. It’s why most carving knives are simple carbon steels.

[GarageBoy]

here we go I finally thought of a few.

--- Knives are meant to be USED. Making most sprints useless. If I can't get my knife repaired or replaced if something breaks then it's not useful. My collection consists of mostly mid to higher end models, Spydiechef, scale swapped native salt, Waterway, Watu, and my ONE sprint, the coated s90v orange frn manix. Which is my work knife. ALL of my knives get used. But I'm terrified my manix tip will at some point snap and there'll be nothing I can do about it. It's the only reason I didn't jump on any of the rex45 models, because if I buy a knife specifically to beat on it and there's no way to repair or replace it then it's not useful.

If you manage to wear out a Sprint, AND you can't buy another one, OR whatever new out is out by the time you wear one out, there's still the base model

[steelcity16]

I'm guessing this isn't unpopular, but it needs to be said. Enough with the Zome. No one is buying them. I would have bought all of the GITD Delicas and Enduras, especially the TiCN ones (multiples of those), had it not been for the Zome. I feel the same way about San Mai cladded knives. I actually really like Japanese stuff and have a lot of Japanese tools, but these two things are both deal breakers for me. I won't buy a knife with Zome scales or a San Mai blade...or Damascus for that matter.

[steelcity16]

All G10 should be coarse peel ply. The smooth G10 is awful and the slow sales of the smooth G10 Cruwear knives showed that most people don't care for them. I would have bought all of the black G10 Cruwear exclusives had they been in the standard peel ply G10. I've also passed on all of the G10 Shamans and the G10 Manix Backlock as well since they are not coarse peel ply G10.

[steelcity16]

Backlock is best lock. :D All backlocks should have a boye dent.

[steelcity16]

Wire clip is best clip. :D

[steelcity16]

Liners on DLC knives like the PM2, Para 3, and Military should be coated, even if it means another $10, $20, or even $30 increase in price. These knives looks dumb with DLC blades and hardware and then those stainless lock tabs and liners staring out at you.

Ok, i'm done now... :D

[steelcity16]

One more...sorry :rolleyes:

Flippers/scalpers with AOL-era websites masquerading as "dealers", should not be allowed to commission exclusives. It takes away production capacity that could be used for legit dealers who sell their exclusives at fair MAP pricing.

[James Y]

Wire clip is best clip. :D

Actually, that opinion is not unpopular. Most forumites seem to like wire clips; many seem to prefer them. NOT liking wire clips is the unpopular opinion.

I DON’T like wire clips!!!

:D

Jim

[MichaelScott]

If a clip works in-pocket and in-use, it’s fine by me. I think generally wire works better.

People who trash S30V are steel snobs.

If you miss out on an exclusive or sprint, and don’t want to pay market price, then move on, nothing to see here.

My main carry knives are a Lil’ Lum and a Schempp Bowie. Size is not a detriment or advantage in a well built knife.

Staying within a constrained blade-to-handle ratio is not logical and often detrimental to a good design.

Lock arguments are stupid.

I like my blades plain not serrated.

All sincere questions from members of our community should be answered fully and respectfully. ( Not an unpopular opinion but I thought I needed to be repeated.)

The ten knife limit for OpFocus members should not include purchases that were returned as new.

[Abyss_Fish]

here we go I finally thought of a few.

--- Knives are meant to be USED. Making most sprints useless. If I can't get my knife repaired or replaced if something breaks then it's not useful. My collection consists of mostly mid to higher end models, Spydiechef, scale swapped native salt, Waterway, Watu, and my ONE sprint, the coated s90v orange frn manix. Which is my work knife. ALL of my knives get used. But I'm terrified my manix tip will at some point snap and there'll be nothing I can do about it. It's the only reason I didn't jump on any of the rex45 models, because if I buy a knife specifically to beat on it and there's no way to repair or replace it then it's not useful.

If you manage to wear out a Sprint, AND you can't buy another one, OR whatever new out is out by the time you wear one out, there's still the base model

Sprints fill different roles though. For example, the reason I tracked down the orange frn coated s90v manix is because it’s exactly what I need for work. Lightweight, easy one hand close even when wet, high vis, high wear resistance, and the blade coating makes corrosion a non-issue. I cannot get all of those attributes in the same package ever again unless they do another run of that specific sprint. Or for a simpler example, there’s no way in **** you can get the performance of a Rex-45 shaman out of a base model, because s30v sucks.

tl;dr: If I buy a sprint it’s because I want to take advantage of the attributes of said sprint, but if I break it or damage it then there’s absolutely no way to use said attributes ever again.

[Abyss_Fish]

One more...sorry :rolleyes:

Flippers/scalpers with AOL-era websites masquerading as "dealers", should not be allowed to commission exclusives. It takes away production capacity that could be used for legit dealers who sell their exclusives at fair MAP pricing.

This is one I’m always torn on. Yes it’s neat that spyderco does work with smaller companies to put out unique models, but on the other hand you are right in that they sell poorly and take up manufacturing space...

[GarageBoy]

here we go I finally thought of a few.

--- Knives are meant to be USED. Making most sprints useless. If I can't get my knife repaired or replaced if something breaks then it's not useful. My collection consists of mostly mid to higher end models, Spydiechef, scale swapped native salt, Waterway, Watu, and my ONE sprint, the coated s90v orange frn manix. Which is my work knife. ALL of my knives get used. But I'm terrified my manix tip will at some point snap and there'll be nothing I can do about it. It's the only reason I didn't jump on any of the rex45 models, because if I buy a knife specifically to beat on it and there's no way to repair or replace it then it's not useful.

If you manage to wear out a Sprint, AND you can't buy another one, OR whatever new out is out by the time you wear one out, there's still the base model

Sprints fill different roles though. For example, the reason I tracked down the orange frn coated s90v manix is because it’s exactly what I need for work. Lightweight, easy one hand close even when wet, high vis, high wear resistance, and the blade coating makes corrosion a non-issue. I cannot get all of those attributes in the same package ever again unless they do another run of that specific sprint. Or for a simpler example, there’s no way in **** you can get the performance of a Rex-45 shaman out of a base model, because s30v sucks.

tl;dr: If I buy a sprint it’s because I want to take advantage of the attributes of said sprint, but if I break it or damage it then there’s absolutely no way to use said attributes ever again.

What I'm saying is, if you bought it, used it, then lost it, at least you got to experience it, vs not buying it because it was a sprint and missing out completely

[DSH007]

My most unpopular opinion.. brace yourselves now..

People who carry knives daily, but only cut apples and open letters are "users" too! There, I said it!

I’ve had a knife in my pocket every day for over a decade. In a given day, I may open mail/packages, cut up an apple at work, cut a loose thread off of clothing, maybe cut some rope here and there, or perform any one of a dozen similar tasks for which a knife is a sufficiently handy tool. If I need to perform a “harder use” task than any of those.. well, I probably have a tool designed specifically for it..

Generally, I understand that this hobby is pretty subjective.. people like what they like and I'm a-okay with that. If you want to spend 17 hours a week filming yourself cutting 3274 ft of cardboard and chopping down small trees in your backyard with your pocket knife, that's fine by me.. have at it! ****, I’ll even admit that it's pretty cool to watch sometimes and that the data collected can be really interesting.

Where I'm rubbed the wrong way though, is when these people adopt an attitude that they are somehow superior to less intensive users because of their own perceived “hard use.” Could I cut every cardboard box that I see into 217 pieces with my PM2? Sure. But why? I have no reason to. If I want to “break down” a box, I use my knife to cut the tape at the opening and .. wait for it.. fold the box in half! It lays just as flat… shocking, I know! Why does my ability to resist the urge to unnecessarily dice the box into a zillion pieces with my pocket knife make me any less of a “user?” Could I take my Shaman out into the woods and chop down 17 medium sized tree limbs with it? Yeah, probably. But I can think of five or six tools off the top of my head that would be better choices for the job..

You see where I’m going with this? In a pinch, I’m sure I could use my knife pretty reliably to perform any number of hard use tasks.. ****, I admit, I’ve abused a knife or two in my day working construction/landscaping jobs.. but typically.. why would I risk my edge or my knife when there are more appropriate tools that are literally designed to perform these jobs? Hello.. Boxcutter.. the intended task is the name of the tool.. what, that's crazy!?!

I guess my point here is that I don’t really care how people use their knives. I am bothered when people start to look down on others for how they use (or don't use) theirs. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who carries a knife and uses it in any way, no matter how “insignificant” the task, is a “user.” We’re all here because we enjoy knives and we should all be able to enjoy knives in our own way. Hahah, end of rant.

[Wartstein]

.......

I guess my point here is that I don’t really care how people use their knives. I am bothered when people start to look down on others for how they use (or don't use) theirs. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who carries a knife and uses it in any way, no matter how “insignificant” the task, is a “user.” We’re all here because we enjoy knives and we should all be able to enjoy knives in our own way. Hahah, end of rant.

I like your post and think you're right.

[Wartstein]

Double post

[vivi]

--- s30v is bad and you should feel bad. well okay, for *very light* everyday use it's probably fine. For a knife that's particularly fancy or something like that, yeah it's fine. But going back to my previous point, if you plan to use your knife, it's useless. It's one of the least stainless stainlesses and the edge chips at the first sight of danger. It's just plain worse than other options. I'd rather have a knife in vg10 (which sharpens and maintains easily, takes a keen edge, is cheap, and is fairly stainless.) over s30v any day.

This was an interesting post to read. I agreed with you on basically everything, including preferring VG10 to S30V, but I'm curious how you formed your opinions on S30V?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hl3n-BtLoaI

If you have the time I'd be curious to hear your interpretation of how that video was possible :p

I work in a kitchen, and for about 3 or 4 months I used a wharny s30v delica as my utility knife. I cut up hundreds of boxes and opened hundreds of bags of raw meat. S30v is in fact reasonably tough, as that video shows. But it’s not *ductile*. It chips. Any sort of a blow to the tip or edge meant I needed to re-profile when I got home. It’s why I’m so in love with lc200n and 3v, it takes a **** of a lot to chip them out, making maintenance easier. Plus even on days I didn’t get a chance to use that delica, it still rusted just from being in my pocket for a full shift. I just don’t think it’s a working steel, I think it belongs with the 1095’s, 154cm’s, and rwl-34’s of the traditional and custom world. Although I’d take any of those steels over s30v that’s for **** sure.

Also, woodcuting does very little to damage a knife’s fine edge. It’s why most carving knives are simple carbon steels.

Hey thanks for the reply. You're right S30V isn't the most ductile steel and wood isn't a very tough material to cut. Your perspective makes a lot more sense now. I can make S30V and VG10 rust in about 3-4 hours of pocket carry in the summer.

[Abyss_Fish]

I can make S30V and VG10 rust in about 3-4 hours of pocket carry in the summer.

True that

[Abyss_Fish]

My most unpopular opinion.. brace yourselves now..

People who carry knives daily, but only cut apples and open letters are "users" too! There, I said it!

Love this attitude! Using your knives how you like to use them!

[MichaelScott]

My most unpopular opinion.. brace yourselves now..

People who carry knives daily, but only cut apples and open letters are "users" too! There, I said it!

I’ve had a knife in my pocket every day for over a decade. In a given day, I may open mail/packages, cut up an apple at work, cut a loose thread off of clothing, maybe cut some rope here and there, or perform any one of a dozen similar tasks for which a knife is a sufficiently handy tool. If I need to perform a “harder use” task than any of those.. well, I probably have a tool designed specifically for it..
…
Hello.. Boxcutter.. the intended task is the name of the tool.. what, that's crazy!?!
…
I guess my point here is that I don’t really care how people use their knives. I am bothered when people start to look down on others for how they use (or don't use) theirs. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who carries a knife and uses it in any way, no matter how “insignificant” the task, is a “user.” We’re all here because we enjoy knives and we should all be able to enjoy knives in our own way. Hahah, end of rant.

I am in general agreement with your stance. Especially when people look down on other people because they don’t share the same opinions.

I think your reference to a box cutter is good and opens the door to some other design aspects of pocket knives that really dictate how they are supposed to be used. Like rescue knives, like salt serrated blades, and tactically oriented knives like the Yojimbo, Matriarch, etc.

How one uses these purpose design tools is another matter, but they were conceived designed and built to perform excellently at their intended tasks